This shit with my Pocket WiFi never seems to end.

So I’m in bed with my gf, we’re watching a movie and the phone rings.  “Unknown number” it says.

“Hello, this is calling from PCCW about your Pocket WiFi service.  As you have outstanding balance of $545 you need to pay it immediately.  You can settle by credit card.  Just give me the three digit security code from the back of your credit card.”

Click! You got it, I hung the fuck up on the bastard.

I then called PCCW.  I checked.  It took me more than 4 minutes to navigate through their voice menus until I could get to an option of “speak to an ostensibly alive person.”

Who basically confirmed what the guy told me on the phone.  That since my autopay is not yet set up on the credit card, they want me to settle outstanding charges immediately.  Because apparently, the fact that I’ve been a customer of theirs since 1995 and have never been late on a single payment means nothing and the US$65 I owe them apparently would make or break their company.

Since I placed the call, at least this time I had a vague idea of who I was talking to.  So I asked for my account number and the actual amount due and then told them I would pay by PPS.

Which I would have done immediately … except that downstairs, there were three guys from PCCW working outside of my house.  They’d arrived unannounced – no phone call or anything to prepare me for the fact that their 3 workmen would be coming onto my private property.  And none of them spoke English.  Apparently something about changing the junction box on the outside wall.   Me being a paranoid creation of the 1960s, I wondered whether this might be PCCW wreaking some form of insane vengeance against me for filing a complaint with the OFTA.

But 15 minutes later, my internet is working again.

But still, just dealing with these people is one disaster after another.

Why do I do it?  They are the only ones offering NOW-TV, which has more English channels that I want than iCable.  They have an exclusive on the Pocket WiFi for the territory.  They offer the fastest broadband service to my little mountain village.  And I’m locked into contracts, so if I canceled with them to go somewhere else, I’d have to pay off the balance of the contracts anyway.

So I have to get my minor little jollies by making these public posts about how GODDAMNED SHITTY THEIR FUCKED UP SERVICE IS.

As if they could care.

Oh good, new blog, three posts, third post already filled with naughty words.

Thanks for visiting!

Found a CSS color chart here.  As you can see, have changed basic post text to a brighter white and links to gold.  (Reload the page if you’re not seeing it.)  Let me know if this works for you!  Or feel free to suggest other color combos.  Frankly, the “Hong Kong Night Theme” is working for me and I think I’m going to keep it and just go on modifying it, at least for the time being.

Someone asked if there was a lot of work involved in making the migration from Blogger to WordPress.  On the surface, the answer is “no.”  But dig a little deeper and actually, there’s still so much to be done it’s almost daunting!

I’ve been helped tremendously by a friend of mine who has been involved in Internet development since 1995.  (He was my boss in 1999 and 2000 back when I was in San Francisco.)  He’s recently decided to start a small managed hosting company and I presume I’m one of his first customers.  (No link for his company yet but will provide it once he’s got it ready.)  So it’s been incredibly useful to have someone to turn to to answer questions!

This blog post has been incredibly helpful in the migration.

Let me just repeat – the current theme is just a temporary one.  I understand that some of you are having problems with the color combination and I do plan to change it.  I could go in and edit the html for the theme but I don’t know the various values for colors – someone want to point me at a web site that references that?  Otherwise I’ll do a search and try to update when I have time.

I need to add in stats, blogroll, various links and widgets, and at least one more “page” showcasing my photographs.  I need to add categories – though not sure I will go back through more than 1,600 posts to tag all of them!  And yes, definitely some advertising, maybe Google AdSense, maybe something more or different.  I spent a lot of time yesterday rewriting the About page and also on the BC page, with all its various links.  Obviously being able to add an infinite number of pages (and an infinite amount of nesting on them)  is a very powerful feature.

Going forward, I’m planning certain categories that I think both fit in and enhance what I’m already doing.  Perhaps a weekly round-up of new releases on CD and DVD, a classic album of the week, classic movie of the week, etc.

Please keep sending me your comments and suggestions.  They are invaluable to me and I truly appreciate all of them!

Thanks for visiting.